Virginia is the birthplace of James Madison, the author of the Bill of Rights. And so it is fitting that the commonwealth recently became the first state to refuse cooperation with federal authorities in the arrest and indefinite detention, without due process, of Americans suspected of terror-related activities.
That the nation's oldest legislature had to step up as the backstop to protect residents' basic rights is a testament to the genius of the political system devised by Madison and his fellow Founding Fathers. But it's also a chilling reminder that the federal government is capable of turning on its own citizens.

"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."